Sunday, June 30, 2013

Beautiful losers

The good die young

Building cars was, is and always will be a cut-throat endeavour. The last few years alone have taught us that not every automaker, no matter how large or legendary, can weather the ebbs and tides of shifting resources and tastes. Take Saab, the once successful Swedish firm that went from winning rallies to filing bankruptcy papers.

But there were others – many others – that rode a wave of anticipation to the production line, only to go belly-up shortly thereafter. Arguably the most famous of these is set to be auctioned on 9 March: the Tucker.

On the eve of that car’s impending sale, we present a survey of some of the most memorable cars that, like James Dean, burned hot and died young.